civilians without extensive training are dead in the water hard to get hired.

grunts without very specialized training are also gonna have a tough time getting into that kinda stuff. join the military and be a driver/gaurd for a col or high ranker. that stuff on your record helps with alot of the stuff they need right now with vip movement stuff.

Google Eeben Barlow.One of the last real mercenary contractors that ended.This guys company would take jobs anywhere. mostly in Africa and this was I think the last of these kind of groups that could be hired for a coup.Disbanded in 1989

Originally Posted By TheTracker:Google Eeben Barlow.One of the last real mercenary contractors that ended.This guys company would take jobs anywhere. mostly in Africa and this was I think the last of these kind of groups that could be hired for a coup.Disbanded in 1989

Originally Posted By TheTracker:Google Eeben Barlow.One of the last real mercenary contractors that ended.This guys company would take jobs anywhere. mostly in Africa and this was I think the last of these kind of groups that could be hired for a coup.Disbanded in 1989

Eeben.....Baaaad mo fo!!!!

Also google Executive Outcomes

EO was featured in a program put out by the History Channel. Story about them was awesome.

Cliffnotes from program...

Small group came in and kicked serious merderous rebel ass, messed up some ethnic cleanser with a vengence, UN said "grrrrr" and made them leave and stationed 10K UN PKs in the area. Rebels had the place back the way they liked it in a month.

CONTRACTOR: You are paying for certain skill sets. Be advised, most civilians do NOT posess the skill sets that the reputable, high end companies are looking for. For that matter most regular joe's/ grunts dont either.

Also feel free to buy a copy of my MA thesis if I publish it. It's gonna be about 5 Commando in the Congo.

Originally Posted By ErinMT:

EO was featured in a program put out by the History Channel. Story about them was awesome.

Cliffnotes from program...

Small group came in and kicked serious merderous rebel ass, messed up some ethnic cleanser with a vengence, UN said "grrrrr" and made them leave and stationed 10K UN PKs in the area. Rebels had the place back the way they liked it in a month.

Currently if I go PhD school, my thesis is gonna be about some part of that. If it goes into book form, feel free to buy it as well.

I know a guy who now does "security consulting for an international mining consortium". He originally was USMC Force Recon, then worked for "two government agencies". He spent the winter of 2001-02 in the mountains of Afghanistan. Sometimes his hair is shoulder-length with a full beard, and sometimes it's high and tight. He's home for a few weeks at a time, and then is gone for 2-3 months, most often in Africa, the ME or the Indian subcontinent.

He has quite an arsenal at home--.338 Lapua, Rem 700 .308, Les Baer AR all with Schmidt and Bender optics as well as multiple other rifles, subguns, and pistols. All his rifles are custom. He says he's good with the .338 out to about 1500m (I believe him).

Mercenary work goes back a ways, longest contract award goes to the Swiss pikemen who were contracted to guard the pope in medieval time and are still there today.

I did some research work into this in the mid 80s so forgive me If I don't recall it all.The best known of the "modern era" mercenaries from post WWII though the mid 70's has to be Mike Hoare. He worked in africa....mostly.take a look here.http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/people_hoare.htmlI remember in a time magazine article he said that he was receiving 27 grand a month in the mid 60's although he was known to brag a bit.what ended Mercenaries was an agreement that stated that mercenaries were to have no rights, no Geneva convention, no protection as POW's nothing. it was more than legal to execute them in the field when found or what ever else you wanted to do. Not good for a long term career.

There were some attempts to get around this, again mostly in Africa. and some made it work for a time. Google for Executive outcomes out of SA and read that.

I have been a "Contractor" and this came up once in conversation while we were on patrol. One of our number took high offense at the idea that we would be called mercenaries.I told the guys, well we are not in ANY military force, we are not in service to a country, we are armed with orders to kill if needed, we are in uniform, but not in the uniform of ANY military service. and we are in a foreign country.And most assuredly we are not here for the view. we are here for the money.Meets any definition of mercenary I can think of.

Originally Posted By az-ar:So how much do guys with prior special military training get to work for someone like blackwater? ie former rangers, seals, recon, etc.

Never worked for Blackwater, have friends that do.Short answer it depends.what the job is, what your skills are, how many people can do the job, or want it (supply and demand), how fast you can leave, lots of things play into it. I know some Force Protection contracts at 50 thow a year. one year contract. Most of the Afghanistan/ Iraq contracts start at 10 thow a month. I have seen 90 day 3 month and one year contracts offered.most CAN be tax free if you meet the requirements set out by the IRS.

the best money is always sh!t living conditions or imminent physical risk. Or both.

Why dont you call Blackwater and ask what to do to get in? They want future employees ,you'll be suprised what you can learn by asking . No company will hire you for a job your not qualified for but they will tell you how to become qualified. The back door to most "special ops " is emt trainning

The problem with the 3 on 1 off deal is that you will pay US tax if you are in the US one month out of four. kind of cuts down on the incentive.One of the major advantages to working out of the US is the tax free money. It is often played up by recruiters. Thing is you have to be out of the US 330 out of 360 days. they may forget to tell you this.Not a problem if you know up front. but if you think you are going to be tax exempt AND be in the US 3 mos a year....Just go visit a lot of the places you always wanted to. Some of the guys have bought places around. Bulgaria is still cheep.

As to being paid in local script, Its called Euros and last I looked it is 1 to 1.20 US , yeah I can live with that.

As a person that's in charge of some of these guys you casually call "mercenaries," I find the use of that word pretty ignorant. Do an internet search for mercenary and you'll get a bunch of websites about an xbox game and a bunch of left wing websites bashing the US.

I can't speak for all the PSD companies running around this country (I think there are 85+) Some of these PSD groups work for companies like Bechtel, Lucent, etc, but others are contracted by the US government.

I can talk about the government PSD guys, because I'm actually here doing just that. These are top tier folks, every last one of them (Blackwater, DynCorp, and Triple Canopy.) They are former operators, infantry, SWAT, former federal agents, all strictly screened by their company and overseen by Uncle Sam. Don't lump these guys, that have served their country with distinction in the past, and continue to serve at great personal risk to their lives, with some soldier of fortune schmuck running around Africa working for whoever will hire him.

They continue to serve this country with distinction but are looked down upon because they get paid more. Maybe if this country's Armed Forces hadn't been cripled by downsizing after the cold war, the use of contractors wouldn't be necessary. If that was the case I guarantee most of these guys would still be wearing camouflage.

ETA: Mercenary: A mercenary is a soldier who fights, or engages in warfare primarily for private gain, usually with little regard for ideological, national or political considerations. However, when the term is used to refer to a soldier in a regular national army, it is usually considered an insult, epithet or pejorative.

A lot of these guys are former military and only got out because they can use the same skillset, in a similar job, and make $200,000 a year instead of $40,000. They still fight on the side of the coalition. Now, if an SF soldier sold his services to AlQaeda (not that one would!) he would be a mercenary, and a traitor.